The revolution will not be televised: 2016 was the year TV turned upside down

Its crunch time for television weve always known it: 2016 was the first year the most must-see shows went missing from terrestrial channels. Streaming has changed the game for ever

This was the year British television underwent one of the most profound changes in its history. The upheaval was as significant as in 1955, when ITV launched as the first commercial rival to the BBC; 1982, when the duopoly was challenged by Channel 4; and 1989-90, when Sky TV and BSB introduced the first non-terrestrial competition.

But much of the audience may not have noticed this time, for the nature of the revolution involved where key work could be watched. Although the arrival of satellite and cable channels a quarter of a century ago broke the tradition of programming being available to all possessors of a TV set, it was initially a transformation of technology rather than content. In 2016 the difference was this: the shows that couldnt be seen in the old ways were frequently the must-see ones.

Three of the most talked-about series of the year neither occupied a time-slot in the schedules nor required a conventional TV: the royal drama The Crown and the retro-thriller Stranger Things were streamed by Netflix, and The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarksons post-BBC vehicle, on Amazon. Having started as a film rental business, Netflix also had on its 2016 slate Charlie Brookers Black Mirror, while Amazon, still at core an online shop and innovator in taxation arrangements, hosted the third run of another hit series, Transparent.

The other six slots are taken by the BBC, which looks at first sight like business as usual. Certainly, the emperor of public-service TV remains on his throne (David Attenboroughs Planet Earth II conquered all before it) and the corporations long-running strength in crime and thriller fiction continued with the third series of Line of Duty, the second of Happy Valley and the John le Carr adaptation The Night Manager.

But, strikingly, two other BBC highlights of the period Phoebe Waller-Bridges Fleabag (an 18-certificate Bridget Jones) and Adam Curtiss latest conspiracy documentary, HyperNormalisation were shown in ways that Lord Reith would not have recognised: the former was originally streamed on the online BBC3, the latter has only ever been available on iPlayer. Although the concept (if not the value) of the licence fee has been preserved in the BBCs latest renegotiations with the government, the quality of the material available on BBC3 and iPlayer clearly feels like an experiment with subscription models for the future.

Sky, which in the past often led its programming with products (football, cricket, Mad Men, The Simpsons) expensively nicked from terrestrial channels, now regularly has original content that traditional networks would envy. A particular source of strength is its investment in the HBO dramas that show on Sky Atlantic, such as The Night Of, The Young Pope and Westworld (all new this year) and the continuing Game of Thrones.

Despite suffering clear brand damage from casting Mary, Mel and Sue out of their tent, Channel 4 continued to make the sort of new and distinctive shows that create, at awards ceremonies and among opinion-formers, an impact disproportionate to their ratings. Standout work included the post-Savile drama National Treasure and the comedy Flowers, which, as a co-production with the American streamer Seeso, showed an alertness to the new means of production.

Channel 4 also showed itself to be at the forefront of thinking about the reformation in broadcasting by becoming the first terrestrial British broadcaster to start an online network, through Walter Presents (launched on 3 January), a remarkable archive of foreign language dramas a few (including Deutschland 83 and Spin) also shown on C4 or E4, but most (including the astonishing Brazilian series Magnifica 70) simply dropped as streamed box sets. Curated by Italian visionary Walter Iuzzolino, this was another game-changer for British audiences. Whereas the BBC launched its online channel (BBC3, in February) to save cash, Channel 4 created its with the aim of increasing viewer choice. Walter Presents has become such a vital viewing option that I just had to check it really has only been running for 12 months.

Moore will also be aware that the BBC2 listings would have been dominated by series 23 of Top Gear, if Clarkson, Hammond and May had presented it. And, beyond Bake Off, a key TV theme of the year was the free movement of programmes and talent.

The BBC chose to lose Clarkson from Top Gear after he hit a producer (and, inevitably, Richard Hammond and James May followed him), but Channel 4 had no choice but to surrender Black Mirror when its independent producers, Endemol Shine, got a better offer from Netflix.

Alan Yentob, the BBCs former creative director, complained in a recent interview that the BBC is finding it hard to compete financially with the new drama streamers: he argued that they would have needed co-producers to afford The Crown, whereas Netflix could fully fund it.

But its not just about money. Would Peter Morgan, screenwriter of The Crown, really have preferred his scripts about a living monarch and her relatives to go through the terrified layers of editorial compliance that seem likely to have been applied at a historically pro-monarchist broadcaster that still employs a royal liaison officer?

The BBC can still produce edgy output Fleabag, NW, Line of Duty, Happy Valley, Sherlock but whoever succeeds Rona Fairhead and Lord Hall of Birkenhead as chair of the BBC Trust and director general must urgently ensure that a culture of obedience does not restrict the broadcaster to heritage TV: wildlife, classic novel adaptations, remade 70s sitcoms.

Although the ex-Top Gear team nodded to the old viewing speed limit by dropping one episode a week of The Grand Tour, Amazon, Netflix, Walter Presents and Sky Box-Sets represent a dramatic shift in where and when much of the most original and interesting TV is now shown. Many viewers may have understandable reasons for refusing to give money to Murdoch or Amazon, and sticking with what you can watch for your 145.50 licence fee. But such refuseniks are at ever greater risk of missing out on extraordinary television.

For at least a decade, speakers at TV conferences have been predicting that the medium was about to be changed for ever by multi-device viewing, self-scheduling, independent production and liberation from regulation; 2016 was the year the revolution finally happened. We will never look at television the same way again.